10,000 Electric Cars Highlight Steep Path To India’s Ambitions

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has kicked off India’s race to turn all new passenger car sales electric by 2030. The largest order has gone to a company that hasn’t commercially started producing the vehicles.

Tata Motors hasn’t sold a single electric car yet, though Chief Executive Officer Guenter Butschek says its late-mover status is an advantage at a time when technology advances are leading to a fall in costs.

Tata along with Mahindra and Mahindra — India’s sole electric carmaker that plans to boost its vehicle manufacturing capacity to 5,000 units a month — underscore the distance to be covered when compared to China and the U.S.

Ramping up production of electric vehicles in a country where carmakers sell 2.5 million fossil fuel powered units annually is just one part of the problem, finding uninterrupted power supply is another. Read More…